A farmers life for me.

I have a dream... I live in a limestone cottage in rural England that catches the golden color of the sun in its walls and I have a small rare breed pig farm. In my dream I would be getting up early in the morning, jump into my morning clothes, run down the stairs to turn on the fire and slip into my boots to head outside to bring the pigs their breakfast. On my return I will jump in the shower and then do some work on my blog and photography, just after lunch I would check on the pigs again and spend some time with them. Of course pens need to be cleaned and housework needs to be done, but I'm not getting hung up on the less enjoyable things. In the evening I will know that I have yet another day taken care of beautiful creatures, help them give birth, rub their bellies and keep them happy before delivering the best meat to feed a small number of people who respect the work that went into producing this meat. I would have shortened the food chain, I will have made a difference. That is what I want, I keep asking myself  'what am I doing to make things better' Sitting behind my desk designing and creating layouts isn't going to make a difference in the bigger picture of it all. I have the need to do more.

Mahatma Gandhi put my feeling into words perfectly “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

So a few weeks ago I went on a rare/native breed pig keeping course in West-Sussex, because you have to start somewhere ...

Middle Whites, one of the rarest British breeds.

It was a freezing day, my cloths as it appears aren't nearly warm enough to be running around on a farm all day. My pretty red wellies are too small for thick woolen socks or even a triple pair to keep my feet from turning into ice cubes.
Luckily I had a lot of excitement keeping me warm, the cold didn't bother me at all.

The day started by waking up the pigs and giving them their first feed, we walked up the field where the paddocks were divided by gender, breed and age. The pigs were eager to tuck in and it became instantly clear they have a pecking order, if you aren't careful to keep an eye out when you feed them, one pig would be very a very happy bunny and the others would go hungry. Every pig reacted to his or her name when called out, a lovely sight to behold and it shows how clever these animals are.  

Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding - Happy birthday to me ...

Here we are again, the day I look forward to the most during the year ... my birthday.
It's the day when I am queen, when I am allowed to wear a crown of flowers and walk around in my widest petticoat no matter where I'm going even if it is a farm or going on a clifftop walk on my favourite Sussex coastal path.
Today - I bloom - like fiery red flower in a colorless world.

It's a big birthday this year -29- for the second time. Some part of me wanted to do a big party, another part just wanted it to blow over. I decided on a last minute posh afternoon tea at Kensington palace with my friends Sassy and Jo when we were gathered in London for Bruno's exhibition.
I had a special dress, made by my friend Jo, you might remember her from her Hotpot recipe a few months ago. Jo designs and produces beautiful bespoke wedding and special occasion gowns and after months of working on the design together it was ready to flaunt when we went for our Afternoon tea.

I call it my England dress, it shows the story behind my love for this country and its ways in an illustration Bruno designed and Jo embroidered onto the dress. I felt tears coming to my eyes when she revealed the dress... Aren't I a lucky lady ...
Jo's craft-wo-manship is exquisite, the detail is amazing. Her brodeuse captured Bruno's every line, flower and every tiny apple. The dress is all kinds of perfect and if you know me -being a perfectionist- I hardly ever find things perfect...
It is a special feeling when a friend makes you a dress, it will never feel completely mine, it will always be hers as well. 
Thank you darling Jo, for making me the most special dress in the world x Thank you my dear friend Sassy for taking these pictures as a keepsake to remember  x


A few of you were eager to see my dress so if you aren't interested in a girl running around in a red dress feeding swans and getting attacked by squirrels - scroll all the way down for a good pudding!

Earlier this week I posted my recipe for Hot Cross Buns, while testing the recipe I had mountains of buns leftover and I didn't want to waste them so I froze them. Now I use the buns to make my Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding. I guaranty you that a Bread and Butter Pudding has never tasted better! As the Hot Cross Buns contains spices and currants already, there is no need to add more.
Enjoy lovely people x  

Hot Cross Buns through Paganism, Christianity and Superstition.

The tradition of baking bread marked with a cross is linked to paganism as well as Christianity. The pagan Saxons would bake cross buns at the beginning of spring in honour of the goddess Eostre - most likely being the origin of the name Easter. The cross represented the rebirth of the world after winter and the four quarters of the moon, as well as the four seasons and the wheel of life.

The Christians saw the Crucifixion in the cross bun and, as with many other pre-Christian traditions, replaced their pagan meaning with a Christian one - the resurrection of Christ at Easter.

According to Elizabeth David, it wasn't until Tudor times that it was permanently linked to Christian celebrations. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the London Clerk of Markets issued a decree forbidding the sale of spiced buns except at burials, at Christmas or on Good Friday.

The first recorded reference to ‘hot’ cross buns was in ‘Poor Robin’s Almanac’ in the early 1700s:
‘Good Friday come this month, the old woman runs. With one or two a penny hot cross buns.’

This satirical rhyme was also probably the inspiration of the commonly known street vendors cry:

‘Hot cross buns, hot cross buns!
One ha’penny, two ha’penny, hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters, give them to your sons,
One ha’penny, two ha’penny, hot cross buns!’

The Widows Son. Copyright Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archive - posted with permission

A century later the belief behind the hot cross bun starts to get a superstitious rather than a religious meaning.

Wheaten Soda Bread with Stout Beer, Oats and Molasses for St-Patrick's day

A lucky shamrock scarf for your bread, to keep your hands flour-free. It's been years since I crocheted!

I was asked by Honest Cooking online food magazine to share a St-Patrick's day recipe with them. I've never been in Ireland so therefore St-Patrick's day is something I only know from visiting the Irish pubs that used to be plenty in Antwerp. The day would be advertised on the pubs blackboards weeks in advance offering live music and a Paddy's special menu. When the day finally came, the Irish folk living in Antwerp and the Irish sailors who were docked at Antwerp port with their ships would gather at the pubs to enjoy a pint and a meal, you would hear the traditional Irish folk music from behind the corner along with loud and often drunken sing-alongs. In Antwerp you most certainly knew when it was St-Patrick's day … But as the Irish pubs started to disappear, the St-Patrick's day celebrations and the taste of Irish food went with them. 

Wheaten Stout Beer, Oats and Molasses

Poverty and oysters ... Beef, stout and oyster pie

As Dickens' Sam Weller remarks in the Pickwick papers: 

'Poverty and oysters always seem to go together'.

Oysters have been savoured in Britain since Roman times. Shells have been found at many archaeological sites, with the Roman fort and Amphitheatre in Richborough as the most symbolically important one, and stretching as far north as Hadrian’s and the Antonine walls. Before the Romans came, the Britons regarded shellfish as something to eat when there was no fish or meat to be had. The little molluscs weren't sought after until the Romans started to farm them and even export them live to Rome, where they were considered a delicacy.

When the Romans withdrew and the Saxons invaded in the 5th century, so a rich culinary culture disappeared, which included the oyster farming. It would take centuries for the oyster to become popular again and the first recorded appearance is to be found in a 14th century cookery manuscript by the Master Chef of King Richard II.  

Throughout the Medieval period the church imposed a number of days where one should eat fish rather than meat. In fact, for a third of the year, eating meat was forbidden. Therefore the mixing of fish and meat in dishes only became popular later in the 16th century and an early 17th century cookbook gives the recipe for roasting mutton with oysters.

Soda bread, time to bake.

On saturday mornings I look forward to a wholesome slice of bread, spread with -when I have the time to make it- home made butter and a sprinkle of seasalt or jam that reminds me of the warmer days of the year passed.

But it has become so hard to get a decent loaf these days, I admit I'm not the easiest of customers but I think my wishes aren't odd at all.
I want 'real' bread made from good quality - organic - stone ground flour, not low protein Chorleywood style loafs or other breads that have been made in a jiffy filled with additives and bread enhancers that feed food intolerance and allergies.

Many people don't realise that when they buy this unnaturally square shaped spongy bread they get more than they bargained for. Chorleywood bread is one of these wonderful inventions of the 60's when everything had to go fast and had to be industrialised. The ingredients don't only list low quality wheat flour, water, salt and the double amount of yeast used for 'real' bread, it also contains a cocktail of hard fats, ascorbic acid, enzymes, emulsifiers and other chemicals that speed up the process.

Some scientists claim that the Chorleywood method is responsible for the growing amount of people who have trouble digesting bread, the use of potassium bromate (E924) -which is now banned in the EU but not the US- being the primary cause. Potassium bromate is carcinogenic and nephrotoxic to experimental animals, causing cell tumors to the thyroid and Renal cell carcinoma.
I apologise for the usage of these scary words but when I found out about this an researched it some more I felt I had to share it with you.

The last 4 years now I've been having trouble digesting the store bought industrial bread that was kindly offered to us at the office for lunch. This wasn't the white square shaped loaf but artisan looking bread bought at a bakery or supermarket - not pre-packed and screaming health alert- I didn't realise until I stopped eating it that it was because of the bread that I suffered abdominal pain every day. But I had been feeling unwell for a long time and after months of searching for answers last summer we finally found out that I have Mixed Connective Tissue disease, an autoimmune condition in which the body's defense system attacks itself. I also had an overactive Thyroid which is now stable ...  If you read the paragraph above you see Potassium bromate or E924 could cause problems to your thyroid and I know a lot of people who suffer from Thyroid related conditions have started to avoid wheat. (If you want to know more about Thyroid related disorder and autoimmune conditions and how to live with them, head over to Sarah Wilson's blog here >)

Soda bread, oysters and a pint of stout. A fisherman's tea.

I don't want to be the one screaming 'horse meat' but I wouldn't be surprised if this harmful E924 would still be circulating in our food chain. After all it isn't banned all over the world and still used widely in the US. 
The Chorleywood method is used all over the world and not exclusively for the iconic square shaped loaf but also to speed up the process of regular bread.
I've stopped eating store-bought bread unless I know it was made traditionally.

Oat and spelt biscuits - a daydream

Looking out of my office window and gazing over that white carpet of snow makes me wonder how much I would enjoy being snowed in for a few days.
It is minus 8 degrees outside but the sun is shining like she's declaring her will to fill the world with golden beams of light. 

 
I close my eyes, daydreaming of waking up in my small chocolate box cottage in rural England, my whole body warmly tucked under a mountain of gingham and flowery blankets. The sun shining through my frost flower stained windows, the glaring light showing off the fact that I haven't cleaned the windows in weeks - months - Who has time to clean the outside of windows?
With the blankets still wrapped around me I make my way to that window to look outside and see the snow halfway up the door of the cottage on the other side of the road.

Could we be snowed in?

Sussex Stewed Steak on a wet winters day

Eight in the morning, a wet winters day in the Sussex countryside. The sun is rising over the marshes and fields but the pink glow is quickly washed away by grey clouds of rain ...
I walk trough a typical crooked path where the tops of the ancient trees lean towards each other creating an archway over the road, nature's chapel.
Blissfully relaxed I listen to the bustling sound of busy birds in the hedges. Holding my breath, counting robins, coal tits and wrens. They don't even seem to notice or care that I'm standing there. 
Then it quiets down, the moment has passed and I walk on. 

When I am at home but I have lots and lots to do during the day and not enough time to prepare a lovely meal, a Sussex Stewed steak is my dish of choice.
It really is the easiest dish you can imagine and it comes out of the oven as a warming meal with elegant flavors to enjoy with guests or just for your own family with plenty of leftovers for the next day. The Stout, port and mushroom sauce used, create a mahogany sauce with a deep  flavour sometimes - depending on which Stout you use- you find some chocolate notes, and however a humble dish it turns out to be a feast for the palate every time. 

Brilliantly British - Farmhouse kitchen Jams

I discovered Farmhouse Kitchen jams at the Goods Shed in Canterbury. I had a hard time finding wild damsons for jam this year and I stumbled upon this Damson jam. Eager to have Damson jam for my cheese board I bought a jar. And I'm glad I did because this jam is simply delicious. Packed with little wild damsons and not overly sweet this jam is perfect on your morning toast as well as a compliment to cheese, or cheesy scones.

Cranberry and Apple Spelt Crumble - a review of the new Falcon enamelware

Those blue rimmed pie dishes, plates and mugs are something I've always associated with Britain ...
Imagine a rustic wooden table in a 'chocolate box cottage' kitchen, I'm sure you can see the white enamelware stacked somewhere in easy reach. Because these are practical utensils, durable and -yes in my opinion- pretty to look at. They are the essential oven to table ware, the perfect picnic crockery and the last thing we like to see when finishing a delicious blueberry pie.

From me to you...

May food and drink be plenty in your house, always.
x
Regula

Yuletide cookies for the tree

My mum and I used to bake yuletide cookies every december, and every year they came out burnt. As a child I was convinced they should be baked until the bottom part was nice and dark, after all, my mother made them that way.
When I asked her for the recipe last week, to make them in my own home for the first time, she added after listing the ingredients - don't let them burn like we always did.
So here I was, making dough with a house full of foodie friends who were visiting to have an early christmas feast. Yet another excuse to eat well and be merry. To celebrate, in times where there is so much sorrow.
I bought my first christmas tree, named him Marcus and the plan is to plant him in the garden for next years christmas feast. On sunday morning we decorated Marcus with the cookies and he filled the living room with the scent of butter cookies and pine.

John Lamond Interview - all about Whisky

My dad has been drinking Whisky for as long as I can remember and on the occasions when he actually let me sip his glass ... I hated it! I wasn't drinking it the way I should, 'nosing' it  ... turning the glass ... 'nosing' the warm aromas again ... and then ... taking the tulip glass to my lips and just wetting them with the fiery golden liquid. Then licking my lips and warming the Whisky with my mouth ... a whole other flavour appears ...chewing the small amount of alcohol and feeling its scent rise up in your nose ... blossoming. At the back of your tongue the flavour matures and becomes sometimes masculine with notes of tobacco or feminine with hints of vanilla ... add a drop of water to this godly spirit ... taste ... and experience how the flavours evolve ...
Trying a new kind of Whisky is an experience ... a journey ... so much more than a drink.

In my early days of Whisky savouring I got an email from John Lamond, one of the world’s leading authorities on Scotch Whisky. The winner of the prestigious 'Master of Malt' title  and he is the author of The Malt Whisky File, The Whisky Connoisseur’s Book of Days and The Whisky Connoisseur’s Companion. 
My lucky day and a chance to ask him the questions I had as a newbie to Whisky. It has taken me nearly a year before posting this interview with John, I felt I had to taste some more Whiskies and grow up a bit in my knowledge before being in the right place to post it.
So here it is, the questions of a Whisky 'virgin' to a Whisky expert.

Why do you love Whisky so much?
I was weaned on whisky.  Both my parents drank it as did all four of my grandparents.  Several amongst my ancestors have been involved in the hotel business, so it goes with the territory I suppose.  I worked with Dewar’s in Perth for five years and then with Low, Robertson & Co., a small Edinburgh based whisky company for a further nine years.
Whilst I was at Dewar’s I was introduced to cask strength whisky, to single cask whisky on a visit to Aberfeldy distillery and this, in 1976, was a revelation to a 23 year old.
I truly believe and preach that Scotch Whisky is the world’s premier spirit: nowhere else in the spirit world can you experience such diverse flavours and such degrees of maturity for so few pennies.  I find this diversity, both of flavours and of the people involved in the industry exciting, friendly and very often also humbling.



Cobnut brandy to wet the baby's head

We are a bunch of friends, food bloggers and one of them is becoming a mom at christmas time. Much like our Food Revolution Potluck in the summer, we decided to do a Virtual baby shower for Emiko, our dear friend who moved all the way to Australia last year. We all see each as often as we can, even if we do live in different countries and continents, this virtual baby potluck was plotted in the bedroom of an Umbrian casale on one of our foodie get togethers last month. After those first talks before going to sleep, the plotting started via email, getting all excited imagining her pretty face when she finds out we've been planning this surprise. 
Our friendship lasts through our never ending conversation on twitter, facebook, instagram and very long emails... yet far away, we are always close...
Emiko's blog was the first food blog I started to follow back in 2011 and the first food blogger I ever talked with when I first got on the mighty twitter.
She is one of the kindest people I know and I wish her and her husband Marco all the happiness in the world with their gorgeous little daughter end of december.

I bring to Emiko's baby potluck a home made cobnut or hazelnut brandy for Marco, the dad to be.
It is tradition in Britain for the fathers to 'wet the babies head' when their child is born. As much as it is often an excuse to get drunk, it is also part of a drinking culture that has been around for centuries. To 'wet' or to 'whet' the babies head refers to baptism, however in pagan Britain a newborn baby would most likely be celebrated with a drink… or two, or three.

Brilliantly British - Cawston Press

I discovered Cawston Press at this years Food Blogger Connect. Three days long we were spoiled with their sparkling and still apple juice. I'm picky about my apple juice to be honest, I don't like it too sweet and Cawston Press delivered a perfectly balanced flavour. The apple juice has a pleasant clean taste and the blends like Apple & Elderflower don't overpower the apple flavour. Cawston Press have been pressing apples for juice since 1986 and every carton of Cawston Press has 10 whole apples pressed into it! What I also love is the whole brands design! This one caught my graphic designers eye at once! My favourite of them all? Apple & Rhubarb ... so British.

Cobnut and apple tart

I'm very happy to announce, I've been asked to write for Great British Chefs
Here I am, a Belgian girl writing about Britain and British food and I am really proud that they have taken me under the Great British Chefs' wing.

I didn't have to think twice when I was asked to write about something for a mostly British audience, recently I've been quite obsessed with Kentish cobnuts and I have many more recipes up my sleeve.

When I think of my beloved Kent, apples, cobnuts, cherries and hops are the four things that define this county for me. They have moulded the landscape with their orchards and plats and have influenced the kitchens and culture.

I discovered Kentish cobnuts on a late summers day when they are sold fresh in their green husks. The kernels are then juicy and resemble a chestnut flavour, yet more delicate. When autumn arrives the cobnuts are ripened, the husks, then turned brown, are removed and they look more like the hazelnut we generally know. Now they are dried and referred to as Golden Cobnuts. The flavour of the nut has developed while ripening, and has gone from fresh and juicy to an intense nutty flavour. When stored dry they keep till christmas. The Kentish cobnut is larger and more ovoid shaped than a hazelnut and also has a different and slightly more intense flavour.

Cobnuts generally grow in Kent, where the variety the 'Kentish Cob' was planted in the 19th century by a Mr Lambert of Goudhurst.
They have however been around since Tudor times and were but revived by the Victorians who considered them to be a delicacy. There are more varieties of cobnuts but as Kent has historically been the main county producing cobnuts, the term Kentish cob is often used generally for every variety of cobnut grown in Britain.
Cobnut orchards are known as 'plats' and the nuts are harvested by hand by workmen called 'nutters'. In the old days cobnuts were also sometimes picked by hop pickers coming down from London as cobnuts and hops both ripen at the same time. The disappearance of the Hop pickers roughly corresponds with the decline of the cobnut plats.

I had my mind set on Sloe Gin

I had sloes on my mind the last two times we drove up to Kent...
On both occasions I went home without them…
My eyes were on honesty boxes by the road, people selling produce from their garden at car boot sales and little blue-ish dots in the trees we drove passed.
The location of sloe trees is a well guarded secret of those who have discovered them on foraging trips. This makes them even more mysterious to me, I just had to have some sloes. I heard stories saying the native British sloe is so very rare it only grows from ancient trees. They look like black olives, and like olives best not eaten straight from the tree. Sloes are very tart and mostly used to make jams to accompany cheese and for making sloe gin…

The sloe or 'Prunus Spinosa' is a berry from the blackthorn. Sloes or blackthorns were planted around the countryside in the 16th and 17th century as hedges around the fields to keep the cattle in. The word 'sloe' comes from the Old English slāh, in Old High German slēha and in Middle Dutch sleuuwe.  
Traditionally when making sloe gin, the berries must be gathered after the first frost and one must prick each berry with a thorn taken from the blackthorn bush. Sloe gin is made by infusing gin with the berries. Sugar is required to ensure the juices are extracted from the fruit. Some swear by freezing the berries before use.

Jo's Hotpot - British family recipes

I think she didn't realize how much she filled my heart with joy when she handed me a jar of pickled red cabbage to go with a Lancashire hotpot she cooked for me to take home. Insecure about what I was going to think of her dish, she provided me with the instructions for heating the hotpot at home.
Joanne, a bridal gown designer originally from Lancashire, moved to Birmingham a few years ago to open her fabulous bridal studio in the old Custard factory. She cooks this hotpot a lot for her family and I was lucky enough to have a taste myself.

The Lancashire hotpot is the most famous dish to come from the county of Lancashire. Traditionally it is made from mutton, topped with sliced potatoes. It's a quick and simple dish to prepare with long slow cooking, the tale goes that the women who worked at the cotton mills prepared this dish in the morning and placed the Hotpot in the oven to simmer. Hours later when the family returned home, they would have a warming dish to enjoy. This is an economical dish, making the most out of cheap cuts of meat. Nowadays lamb is mostly used but in the old days cheap cuts of mutton were used as they have a strong flavour and therefore little would go a long way.

Jo's Hotpot is made with a pastry lid instead of being topped with sliced potatoes on top. The pastry gives some extra texture to the dish that I quite like!
I'm sure this dish will be a favourite in our house like it is at Jo's. Thanks so much for sharing Jo, you are amazing!

This is the first of hopefully many recipes sent to me by readers, friends of readers, mums and aunties for my British family recipe challenge. Do you have a family recipe for Huffkins, puffkins, pudding or any other traditional recipe?
Something you mum made a bit differently because her mum told her to?
 
Submit your recipe and I will cook the dish and post it here on the blog!
Do let me know where you got the recipe from, it could be your grandmother or even your grandmother's grandmother! And tell me the story behind the dish if you like!
Can't wait to read all about it!







More in info here  >
You can send you recipe to: recipe@missfoodwise.com   Cheers x

Jo's Hotpot 

Send in your British family recipe and I'll cook it!

Florence White called out to her readers in the 1930's to send her their traditional family recipes. 
The contributions of those people turned into a beautiful book called 'Good things in England'. It is also the book you'll always find on my bedside table.

Challenge me!
Do you have a family recipe for Huffkins, puffkins, pudding or any other traditional recipe?
Something you mum made a bit differently because her mum told her to?
Submit your recipe and I will cook the dish and post it here on the blog!
Do let me know where you got the recipe from, it could be your grandmother or even your grandmother's grandmother! And tell me the story behind the dish if you like!
Can't wait to read all about it!

Submit here

or send me an email at recipe@missfoodwise.com

Cheers

x Regula

Harvest soup for Samhain

The Celts called it Samhain which celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of winter. It literally means 'summer's end' and is the primary festival marking the end and the beginning of the year.
Along with Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh it makes up the four Gaelic seasonal festivals.
Samhain was the evening when the veil between our world and 'Netherworld' was believed to be at their thinnest. It's the feast of the dead, like Beltane is the feast of the living.
Bonfires played a big part in the festivities -much like with Beltane- people would jump over the fires or walk between them as a cleansing ritual. 
Costumes and masks -usually animal heads and hides- were worn, as an attempt to cast of or taunt the evil spirits, this was referred to as 'guising'. 
It was also the time for farmers to choose which animals would need to be slaughtered to get through the winter. This custom is still observed now by many who raise livestock as the animals will no longer graze outside.
Food offerings were also made at Samhain, people would leave vegetables outside of their door to please the evil spirits and fairies. Later in time the food offerings changed into lanterns made of hollowed turnips - much resembling the carved pumpkins we know today.

The earliest record we have of Samhain in the Celtic world comes from the Coligny Calendar, a Celtic lunisolar calendar engraved on bronze tablets believed to be dating back to the first century AD. It was written in Gaulish, a Celtic language very close related to the Brythonic being Cornish, Welsh, Breton, Cumbric and maybe even Pictish.
Celtic mythology is originally a spoken tradition, the irony is that the traditions and tales were eventually written down by Christian monks in the Middle Ages who then Christianized them to suit there needs and believes. After all the best way to strip the people of their believes is to simply adopt them to later on adapt them...

Bramley apple and Blackberry pie

Today is apple day.

In 1809 a young girl, Mary Ann Brailsford, planted a few pips in her garden in Southwell. Those pips grew into the apple tree that is responsible for one of Britains most beloved fruit.
Forty years later a local butcher bought Mary Ann's cottage and garden, after a decade of enjoying the trees fruits a nurseryman from the area asked him if he could sell some of the apples from the tree in his garden. The butcher agreed but wanted the apples to bear his name... Bramley.

Bramley's seedling were an important source of food during the First World War as during the 1900s the trees were extensively planted and the crop plenty.
Every single Bramley apple tree has come from the tree planted in that cottage garden in Nottinghamshire.

The tree was almost lost forever when in 1900 a destructive storm knocked it over, leaving it wounded on the grounds of the garden where he had grown and grown for nearly a hundred years. But from the old wood of the tree emerged a new one and it grew to be the monument we can see today.
The Bramley apple tree in Southwell has become the towns treasure and they host many celebrations of the Bramley Apple, there even is 'The Bramley apple Inn' which is located just a few doors away from where the original Bramley apple tree still grows his apples to this day.

Food Blogger Connect - Back to the Victorian school

Ellen Silverman at the photography workshop

When I started this blog not a bone in my body imagined that I would also gain so many friends.
It all began with Food Blogger Connect last year, I arrived at the conference without a twitter account, instagram or even Facebook page. To be honest I only knew of a few people's food blogs and I was almost convinced I was the only food blogger in Belgium...

This conference has changed my life, it has shown me that there are still people who are selfless and kind. People who are driven by passion and creativity. I was embraced by a community and went home with friends from all over the world.
I speak to them nearly every day trough various social media platforms and we see each other as often as we can. We travel to each others homes and have a taste of each others cultures, leaving to go home again full of inspiration.

As a first time attendee of the conference last year, a world of SEO, social media and photography opened for me. I discovered that (food) photography is my real passion in this world -other than this blog of course but they are entwined anyway-

The Ragged School room, our venue. picture www.sarkababicka.com

You get a taster of different kind of things, you enrich yourself with knowledge. What a lot of people don't realize is that as a (food) blogger you have be a storyteller, photographer, SEO-geek, social media expert and occasional web developer.
Luckily Food Blogger Connect offers talks and workshops on all these subjects.
Last year Jaden Hair from Steamy Kitchen explained to us how to create solid foundations for our blog and branding, Fiona Beckett from The Guardian told us to write something every day even if we don't publish it, Food and Travel editor Alex Mead gave us some pointers about pitching to magazines and Béatrice Peltre shared her knowledge on food photography.

Last year the venue was a posh hotel, this year it was the Old Ragged School of Beaconsfield. A Victorian school building and railway arch that made my heart skip a beat. How romantic, having a weekend of lessons in a Victorian school... For three days I was trying to imagine how the school would have looked in bygone times.

Kentish Cobnut cake with apple compote - a marriage made in autumn

It seems like in a weeks time the days have started to get more chilly and shorter. The trees are starting to shake off their leaves and we are greeted by cobnuts, apples and plums. Autumn is definitely upon us.

Last week I walked in a sunny meadow in Kent wearing a summer dress and red dancing shoes, today I'm packing a warm cardigan for London where I will stay with friends for a few days to attend this years food blogger conference. This time away from the hectic magazine deadlines and the company of like-minded food lovers from all over the globe will warm me with a fire of creativity.

In Kent, my mission was to find the 'Kentish cob' which is a type of hazelnut that has been grown in England since Tudor times and perhaps even earlier. The Victorians considered the Kentish cobnuts to be a delicacy and therefore are responsible for planting 7000 acres of cobnut orchard or 'plats'.
Like the cherry orchards, after first world war the amount of cobnut plats in Kent was drastically decreased to no more than 730 acres with a further decline to 250 acres today.
Unlike most hazelnuts, cobnuts are sold fresh and not dried. They are in season from the end of august through october.
At the beginning of the season the husks are green and the kernels very juicy, further into the season when the nuts have ripened the husks and shells are brown and the flavour has developed further to the hazelnut taste that we are used too.

This cake has a wonderful nutty flavour, together with the apple compote the flavours are a marriage made in autumn. Just glorious cake.

Kentish cobnut cake
traditional Kentish recipe adapted from English Teatime Recipes